# ID this Latin musical type **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [September 21, 2023, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-latin-musical-type/990502 "2023-09-21T20:49:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2023, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-latin-musical-type/990502/1 "2023-09-21T20:49:56Z")
This is really an FQ but I’m putting it here because it’s a trivial culture question. The style Paul Simon is using in “The Vampire” is (to me) extremely ubiquitous and recognizable. If you told me to sit down at a piano and play “random Cuban song”, this is exactly what I (not an expert) would plink out. But I can’t put a name to the style. I don’t feel it fits to _salsa, mambo, rumba, merengue, son_. Going down the YouTube rabbit hole has already been very edifying for me, and I could probably learn a lot from continuing it, but I really would just like to cut to the chase and know what exactly we call this subcategory: [Paul Simon, “The Vampire”.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ongdRfw82H0) Waiting for the day when AI can identify a song from me going “doot doot doot but then it’s like Tito Puente is going to come in with the timbales but he doesn’t, it’s not him, it’s a different guy, instead it’s like this slow jam but there could be a muted trumpet like bap bapa dap and sometimes they even throw in a violin” ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2023, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-latin-musical-type/990502/2 "2023-09-21T21:15:23Z")
It sounds like what is played in the _campo_ in Cuba; the folk music, in other words. It’s quite similar to what you can hear played by [The Buena Vista Social Club](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zAGToLjTw0&ab_channel=DemirhanDorukAktoprak). ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2023, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-latin-musical-type/990502/3 "2023-09-21T21:27:31Z")
Maybe guajira-son. An example: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/mguT1z_vBkQ/maxresdefault.jpg "Afro-Cuban All Stars - Amor Verdadero (Official Audio)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mguT1z_vBkQ) ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2023, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-latin-musical-type/990502/4 "2023-09-22T00:48:16Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > It sounds like what is played in the _campo_ in Cuba; the folk music, in other words. It’s quite similar to what you can hear played by [The Buena Vista Social Club](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zAGToLjTw0&ab_channel=DemirhanDorukAktoprak). BVSC is what I keep stumbling across over and over. Definitely they do a lot of what I’m trying to get at, but I had trouble turning up any kind of stylistic description than “Afro-Cuban”. If that’s it, that’s it, but I felt like maybe that’s an approximation for one or more specific things. > [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > Maybe guajira-son. That video nailed it right on the head. I knew _guajira_ is a thing, I knew _son_ is a thing, but I didn’t realize there was _guajira-son_. So I think we can go with that. ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2023, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-latin-musical-type/990502/5 "2023-09-22T01:34:09Z")
Guajira-son is one song genre of Cuban music. “[Guantanamera](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwvIUdU4S38&ab_channel=djangi_unchained)”, perhaps the most famous Cuban song outside Cuba, is guajira-son. Here’s a video of a guitarist demonstrating guajira-son: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/o8l-PkX90oc/maxresdefault.jpg "Cuban Guitar Lesson - Guajira Son Intro - Jesús Hernández") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8l-PkX90oc) ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2023, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-latin-musical-type/990502/6 "2023-09-22T20:55:23Z")
> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > Guajira-son is one song genre of Cuban music. “[Guantanamera](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwvIUdU4S38&ab_channel=djangi_unchained)”, perhaps the most famous Cuban song outside Cuba, is guajira-son. Now that you pointed it out, and I’m listening to it, it should have been pretty obvious to me. You can actually hear them singing the phrase _guajira-son_ in many of those songs. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2023, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-latin-musical-type/990502/7 "2023-09-22T21:01:38Z")
Cuban came to mind right away. I don’t know much about music but the tempo was was right.